Ultimate Content Marketing Guide For Arts & Crafts Blogs

Content marketing has many benefits for artists, crafters and other creative entrepreneurs. For one thing, it establishes you as an expert in your field and provides helpful information to your audience.

It is important to first understand the benefits of content marketing so you can utilize this very effective method to market your art business.  We will also give you tons of content marketing ideas that you can try and give you tips on how to get your content some great exposure.

So what is content marketing?

Content marketing is the practice of creating relevant and informative content on a consistent basis with the goal of building a relationship with your customers and increasing engagement within your website.

If you want to increase your arts and crafts sales, you need to show that you care about their needs and wants FIRST.  It is important to build trust with your customers by creating a community-like feel and become their trusted expert.  If you can create this bond with them, they will be more than willing to purchase your art or handmade craft products.

Creating valuable content will:

1. Build a personal connection to your work
2. Increase your reputation and credibility as an artist
3. Increase exposure of your work
4. Create a online presence for your brand

What can you do to make your content stand out from other artists?

Understand your audience

Try to create a profile of your target audience.  Is it budding artists, crafty moms, or kids just getting started on their artistic ventures?  What types of arts or crafts topics are you going to focus on?  Is it floral art, painting, drawing, ceramics, etc.?  

The more you are able to hone in to the type of audience you are looking to target, the more effective and relevant your content will be to them.  Even the biggest marketing companies continue to follow this practice in the beginning phases of a campaign or product launch.

What steps can you take to understand your audience? 

• Research trends – Gain an understanding of the types of content that is trending in your industry right now.  Get familiar with the keywords and buzzwords being used in your area of expertise and make it a point to integrate it into the content that you are creating.  You can use Google Trends which is a free tool that you can use to see the popularity of keywords and phrases over time.  

• Look at your competitors – Start doing some searches online for keywords you are interested in ranking for and see what other arts and crafts blogs pop up on the first page of Google.  Read through the content on their websites and get an understanding of the topics they are writing about.  When looking at their content try to think about how you can make that content even better.
• Get familiar with SEO – You want to at least have a general understanding of how SEO is used to develop your content to be found in search engines.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  There are some simple tips you can take to make your content search-engine friendly. For tips on how to utilize SEO for your craft blog, check out our post on Complete Guide to SEO For Craft Sellers & Artists.
• Utilize social media – Whether it’s Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram…make sure you utilize these channels when promoting your content.  Create your business profiles on these channels and share the content you are posting on your blog/website on these platforms as well. If you continue to post good content regularly, you will increase your followers and your followers may share your content with an even larger audience.
• Track your progress – If you are putting all this work into creating great content, it is critical that you track the effectiveness of your posts.  You need to understand what content is resonating the most with your audience.  As soon as you launch your website/blog make sure to set up Google Analytics on your website and you will be able to run reports to see which content is getting the most traffic.

• Generate leads – Once you start posting your content, start building an email list and engage in conversation with your audience.  You can build an email list by creating an option for membership or offering a free tutorial or printable to entice others to sign up to your email list.  You can also offer exclusive content only to those who have signed up for your emails.

Best practices for developing great content for your arts and crafting blog:

Create long-form posts – If you want to rank higher in Google, you will have to create longer posts.  Aim for a post of around 1000 words or more.  Be sure to fill your post with valuable content and not fluff.

Blog Consistently – If you stay consistent in your blog post writing, you will begin to grow your audience more and more over time.

Write for people, not search engines – Make sure your posts are easy to read and understand.  Your content should flow easily to the reader.  Stuffing content with keywords will not help you and may actually even get you in trouble with Google.  

Don’t write duplicate content or plagiarize – Another thing that can get you in trouble with Google is copying someone else’s content or duplicating your content across your blog posts.  It confuses search engines when it comes to ranking your content based on focus keywords and Google doesn’t like it, just don’t do it.

Know what your goals are – Whether it’s just more traffic or more sales, develop specific goals that you can work towards.  An example of a specific goal is to say, “I would like to increase traffic to my website by 25%”.

Develop a way to keep your content organized – You can try using a content calendar, app or spreadsheet to keep you organized.

Create a list of content ideas – Spend some time brainstorming post ideas to write about.. the more ideas, the better.  It will be much easier to create a plan when you know what you will be writing about ahead of time.

Apply the ABC Strategy – The ABC strategy is often used for content marketing by digital marketing experts and stands for three types of posts: 

• A Post: Type A posts are posts related to yourself. Examples of these posts include a new advertisement for a product or service. 
• B Post: Type B posts are posts related to your industry, such as trending topics. 
• C Post: Type C posts are industry-related posts as well, but offer more relevant content to a particular niche. 

Use only high-quality photos or videos of your work – Use clean and crisp photos or videos of your artwork for a more professional image to potential customers. If your images are blurry or dull, your followers will not be impressed and move on.  Become familiar with photo editing software if you need to touch up photos. 

Show the creative process to your work – Share your work-in-progress with rough drafts or time-lapse videos.  This gives your users a behind-the-scenes look into your creative process. 

Repurpose your content – You can repurpose your content into other forms, such as merging multiple content pieces into a guide, or turning an article into a video or presentation.

Break up your copy – Make content more engaging and easy to read with bulleted lists, graphs, images, quotes and screenshots.

Know your most relevant channels – Your blog posts should go to channels where your users spend most of their time. 

Automate social media posting – You can automate your social media posts and save a ton of time (examples of social media automation software includes Hootsuite, AgoraPulse, Buffer, BuzzSumo and CoSchedule).

Use meta tags for SEO – Make sure to tag your page titles, headings and meta description with your focus keyword so Google can easily understand what the content is about and rank it appropriately.  

How To Create a Social Media Content Calendar

A content calendar is a resource that you can use to plan out your content posts. You can use this to visualize how your content will be distributed. Steps to creating a content calendar include:

1. Establishing the social media channels where you will post regularly.
2. Deciding what metrics you want to track ahead of time.
3. Pulling your content assets together into one place for easy access.
4. Creating a consistent workflow by scheduling days and times weekly for posting to your calendar.
5. Starting scheduling and creating your posts!

Types of Content Marketing For Arts and Crafts Blogs:

1. Videos – Performance art, short films, art history documentaries, avant garde cinema, motion picture, time-lapse video of creative art and craft pieces.
2. Photos – Photojournalism, portraits, fashion, still life photography, editorial, sports and architectural. 
3. Case studies – For artists this can refer to testimonials or assessments of creativity, self-expression, in areas of study including visual arts, music, dance and theatre. For craft artists, this can refer to specific types of crafts such as wood, paper, ceramics, glass, home decor, floral art, crochet or jewelry.
4. Interviews – Examples of artists interviews involve the following types of communication: letter, questionnaire, phone call, face to face conversation, or working alongside the artist.
5. Lists – There are a lot of options for this category, but examples of content would be: supplies list, list of steps to create a particular art and craft piece, types of art, lists of art exhibits or craft shows, lists of art and craft resources, etc.
6. Slideshares – You can create a slideshare of your work and/or research as part of a portfolio to share with potential buyers or employers.
7. Content curation – Curate and share content from other sources such as current trends from relevant social media pages, news sites, blogs and other industry resources within your blog or social media profiles.
8. Helpful tools – You can provide your opinion on best tools for woodwork, painters, crafters and other types of artists.
9. Surveys – You can conduct surveys on your website or social media accounts and publish results and findings.
10. Product reviews – You can write your personal review of training courses, art and crafting products you have tried or books you have read.
11. Infographics – Infographics are a great way to create your content in a visual colorful way.  Examples of content for infographics are types of art vectors, elements and principles of design, types of metal for arts, design styles, etc.
12. Resources – You can source art and craft data from relevant publications from colleges, magazines, books, etc. in your blog posts.
13. Quotes – Include inspirational quotes from famous artists, musicians or other leaders in the industry.
14. Podcasts – You can create a podcast that discusses trending topics in the arts and crafts industry, discuss art history or conduct inside-scoop stories from art enthusiasts.
15. Newsletters – Newsletters are a great way to increase interaction with your audience with recent blog posts or announcements on your website.
16. Live events – Stream a live video from a nearby craft show or art event you are attending.
17. Challenges – Invite your audience to participate in an art or craft challenge and reward the winner with a prize!
18. How to’s and tutorials – Show off your tips and techniques on various art projects with step-by-step instructions via blog posts or videos.
19. Free stuff – Posts links to free printables, templates and worksheets that your audience would find helpful.
20. User generated content – Reach out to your audience and ask them to participate in a discussion on a specific topic.

Content Topic Examples For Artist and Craft Blogs

1. Your favorite art piece that you created
2. Art shows that your work is being featured in
3. Craft shows that your work is being featured in
4. Courses or workshops that you are hosting
5. Why you love creating art
6. Your favorite type of art or medium
7. What has inspired your artwork and how do you find inspiration?
8. Your art education and background
9. Who are your favorite artists and why?
10. Explain some of your favorite creative techniques
11. What art or craft projects are you working on now?
12.  Share any awards or achievements that you have received 
13. What is your favorite environment or workspace for creating art?
14.  Talk about any upcoming events, shows or conventions that you may be attending
15. Share reviews you have received for your work
16. Post a free giveaway for your art
17. Share artistic or motivational quotes that you live by
18. What are your favorite art tools or materials that you use to create your art or craft?
19.  Show your art through video tutorials
20.  What advice can you give to others starting out in the art industry?
21.  How do you stay focused and inspired?
22.  What resources do you use to learn new art techniques?
23.  What art books or resources do you recommend?
24.  What favorite artists or influencers do you follow?
25.  What tips can you provide for selling your artwork?
26.  What artist associations or organizations are you a part of?

8 Metrics To Measure the Effectiveness of Your Content

Site Traffic – Website traffic is one of the most important indicators of how your content is performing.  It doesn’t matter how great your blogs are if no one is seeing it.  There are a few site traffic metrics to look at:

1. New Users – Total number of new visitors to your website or page
2. Pageviews – Total number of times a website or page has been viewed
3. Unique Pageviews – Total number of multiple pageviews per visitor.

Google Analytics can break down this information in several ways, such as traffic by referrals or geographic area.

Engagement – Engagement refers to how effective your content is to users.  Engagement metrics measure how long customers are staying on your website and how many pages they visited.  Examples of engagement metrics are:

1. Average Time on Page – The higher your Average Time on Page is the better.  It means that your content is being digested by your visitors.  
2. Bounce Rate – Bounce rate refers to the percentage of users that visited one particular page before leaving your website.  A high bounce rate can signal a technical issue with the page or your visitors are not finding the content relevant and abandoning your website.  
3. Pages/Session – This demonstrates the average number of pages visited per session.  A website with a low pages/session can indicate poor navigation or design that you may want to troubleshoot.

SEO Indicators – These indicators can refer to metrics such as improved keyword rankings which is important to measure because it means that Google determines that your content is well optimized and relevant to their users.  For more information on how to implement SEO best practices for your blog check out our post on Complete Guide to SEO For Craft Sellers & Artists. 

The ultimate goal for artists and crafting bloggers is to show up on page 1 for a targeted keyword, which by far gets the majority of traffic from people searching online. 

Brand Awareness – The more interesting content you put out there, the better chance you have of increasing awareness around your brand and your work.  Once your awareness grows, you will start to see an improvement in ROI such as leads, sales and referrals. 

Social Media Metrics – Measuring the effectiveness of your content on social media is a great way to find out if your content is valuable. A good indicator of this is an increase in followers, shares, pins, retweets, likes and comments on your posts.  

Percentage of conversion/sales – Of course, your ultimate goal is to see an increase in conversions/leads.  Examples of conversions or leads are:

• Email subscriptions
• Sales
• Memberships
• Contact forms

In conclusion, creating great content will give your art or crafting blog the exposure that it needs to be successful and can lead to more sales and ultimately, more revenue.  

We love to hear your comments or tips on this topic! Feel free to comment below!